Improvement in ventilating mines



NrrD STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE W. WILLIAMSON, OF PITTSTON, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO IIIMSELFAND GIRARD HILLERS, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN VENTILATING MINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 153,878, dated August4,1874; applicatlon filed May 15,1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Beitknownthatl,GEoRGEW.WrLLIAMsoN, of Pittston, Luzerne county,Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Ventilating Mines, ofwhich the following is a specification:

The object of my invention is to ventilate mines by causing a forciblecurrent of air to pass down through the shaft or slope and through thegangways to the workings, as indicated by the arrows in the sectionalview, Figure l, of the accompanying drawing, and to return from the saidworkings to the outlet B through continuous passages D formed in thegangways beneath the railway-tracks, all as fully described hereafter.

In carrying out my invention, I form the return-passages D for the foulair in the drifts or gangways E by elevating the planking a on which therailway-tracks b are laid afew inches above the bottom of the saidgangways, as shown in the enlarged transverse section, Fig. 2, thereadiest method of thus elevating. the planking being to lay it uponlongitudinal stringers d. The passages thus formed eX- tend throughoutthe entire length of each gangway to the points of working, X, andcommunicate with each other in the several gangways, or directly withthe main outletpassage B in the shaft, so that when an upward current isinduced in the latter by means of a fan or other exhausting apparatusthe result must be a downward passage of pure air through the shaft A,an outward passage through all the gangways E to the points of ing tothe close, proximity oi' the Ventilating Y passages D. It will also benoted that this desirable result is attained at a comparatively slightcost, all that is necessary being to elevate the planking suflcientlytoyform the passages, and the latter, owing to their situation, can beconnected in the several branch gangways much more readily than vpipesor side passages, which would have to cross and recross the tracks, andwould therefore be much in the Way.

I claim as my invention- The combination of the rails of a mine ortunnel supports for retaining the rails in an elevated position, andplanking arranged to form a covered air-passage below the rails, as setforth.

In testimony whereot1 I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

GEORGE W. WILLIAMSON.

Witnesses:

WM. A. STEEL, HARRY SMITH.

